Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/194

 principal grievances of Marik were, firstly, that Hus had interpreted the action of Christ who had driven the traders from the temple as signifying that He had granted to a lay king the right of ruling over the clergy, and, secondly, that Hus had stated that Christ had lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem principally because it had been caused by the sins of the clergy. In his treatise Hus maintained his theses though defining them in a manner somewhat different from that of Marik. The treatise Contra occultum adversarium is very difficult reading and its importance is not immediately obvious. Basing as usual his arguments on Scripture, Hus here maintains the power which the secular authorities should exercise over the church in a manner similar to that of Wycliffe—and indeed of many earlier writers—as well as to that of the later reformers, of Luther in particular. The friends of Hus therefore strove, and strove successfully, to prevent this treatise from being brought to the knowledge of the Council of Constance. The ecclesiastics of whom that assembly was mainly composed would of course deeply resent the theories contained in the treatise as encroaching on their rights, while they would not obtain for Hus the support of Sigismund, whose desire to annihilate the Bohemian reformer was founded on political motives. Hus's language in this treatise is very outspoken. He declares that it is the duty of kings and lords of the secular arm to restrain the wickedness of the clergy and extirpate the heresy of simony.